All posts tagged NPR

Tom Magliozzi, who co-hosted the National Public Radio show “Car Talk” with his brother, Ray, for 37 years, died Monday morning from complications of Alzheimer’s disease.

The show’s website temporarily crashed following the announcement of Magliozzi’s death, according to the show’s longtime executive producer Doug Berman, who was known to the Magliozzis by a number of unflattering names including “The Subway Fugitive” and “Not A Slave To Fashion.”

During hour-long episodes of “Car Talk,” listeners called in with questions about automotive maladies but some of the most memorable discussions involved intimate advice on personal relationships. Read More »

When Nina Totenberg, longtime legal affairs correspondent for NPR, first joined the organization in 1975, her biggest challenge was getting a job. She, along with Linda Wertheimer and Cokie Roberts, were known as the Three Musketeers for their trailblazing political reporting.

“All I ever did was work like a dog to keep the job and do well and be noticed as a good reporter,” she revealed in WSJ’s Work Wear series on office style. “That’s pretty much taken for granted now.”

The veteran journalist also discussed what challenges women have in today’s workforce, dressing for the Supreme Court, and getting hooked on “Say Yes to the Dress” when she was bedridden. Read More »

Related News:

Whether responding to breaking news, hosting a musical performance or interviewing heads of state, employees at NPR aim to dress appropriately for their roles. For the roughly 750 employees at the media organization’s Washington headquarters, that can mean anything from shorts and sandals in the summer to tailored suits.

“You’re going to dress differently if you’re a White House correspondent than if you are shooting video or editing tape on the overnight,” said Margaret Low Smith, senior vice president of news.

Scott Simon, host of “Weekend Edition Saturday,” said he often gets teased by his colleagues for dressing up, whether it’s because of his pocket squares or red socks, or for wearing a particularly voluminous coat in Afghanistan. “You can’t let your standards slip just because you’re in a war zone,” he quipped. Read More »

Scott Simon, host of NPR’s Weekend Edition, is tweeting from the hospital bedside of his mother, Patricia Lyons Simon Newman Gilband, as she approaches death — and has drawn 1.2 million followers to a moving, occasionally funny and very 21st century chronicle of one of life’s universal experiences, the death of a parent.

One Tweet posted on his feed reads “I am getting a life’s lesson about grace from my mother in the ICU. We never stop learning from our mothers, do we?” Read More »

House Bans Funds for NPR Programming: The House of Representatives voted 228-192 to ban the use of federal funds for NPR programming. The vote was largely along party lines; no Democrats voted for the bill, and seven Republicans voted against it. The proposal had been advanced by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R., Colo.). On Thursday, the Obama administration said it “strongly opposes” the bill. It isn’t expected to pass in the Senate, and may not even reach the floor. What do you think of the vote? Leave your thoughts in the comments.[WSJ] Read More »

Ellen Weiss, the National Public Radio executive who fired journalist Juan Williams shortly after he made comments about Muslims, defended her actions, shortly after resigning her post.

Weiss, who had served as NPR’s senior vice-president for news, told the Los Angeles Times “What I would say is that the decision to terminate the Juan Williams contract by NPR, of which I was a participant, was based on the highest journalistic standards.”

The NPR executive who fired commentator Juan Williams in October is leaving the media organization. Ellen Weiss, who held the title of senior vice president for news for NPR and worked for the organization since 1982, has resigned from her position, according to a spokesperson there. NPR drew criticism after firing Williams following comments he made about Muslims while appearing as a guest on Fox News.

National Public Radio’s in-house watchdog says that the firing of Juan Williams for his remarks about Muslims was “poorly handled.”

Alicia Shepard, NPR’s Ombudsman, wrote a story on her blog today providing her take on the ouster of Williams. Although she questioned the way NPR dealt with the matter, she agreed that something had to be done.

Williams, who was a news analyst for NPR, appeared on the Fox News show “The O’Reilly Factor” on Monday and said that seeing people in “Muslim garb” on airplanes made him “nervous.” He was fired by NPR shortly afterward.

Excepts from Shepard’s story on the Williams firing after the jump. Read More »

Two weeks ago, actress and singer Patti LuPone grabbed a cell phone out of the hand of an audience member who was texting during a performance of her current play, "Shows for Days." The bold move led to an outpouring of support from fans fed up with glowing screens. Ms. LuPone gives us her five rules of theater etiquette.